While Avatar 3 will focus on Jake Sully and his family, the sequel could still subvert the franchise’s formula. 2009’s original Avatar was told from the perspective of Jake Sully, a human war veteran sent to Pandora as part of a corporate mission. The RDA hoped to strip Pandora of its natural resources and they used Jake as an avatar for their cause, hoping he would infiltrate the native Na’vi and gain their trust. Of course, Jake ended up siding with the Na’vi instead of the RDA and joined their resistance movement.
For the most part, Avatar’s long-awaited 2022 sequel followed a similar storyline. Admittedly, Jack was now certain where his loyalties lay, and Avatar: The Way of Water’s ending featured a few new surprises. However, the basic outline of the movie followed the same structure. In both Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, the peaceful Na’vi enjoyed a relatively tranquil existence until the humans of the RDA invaded. The Na’vi then took up arms to defend themselves, but the natives only attacked the humans after the invaders had already destroyed their homes and threatened their lives and safety.
Unlike the first two movies, Avatar 3 could see the Na’vi preemptively attack the RDA. Where both the original movie’s Na’vi and Avatar: The Way of Water’s Metkayina were defending themselves from human attackers, Avatar 3’s Na’vi fire clans could take a more proactive approach to saving their planet. As there are many Avatar movies on the way and the franchise needs to keep its formula feeling fresh, it would make sense for this second sequel to mix things up by portraying a more aggressive side of the Na’vi. This would also complicate the RDA’s role as villains.
In Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, the RDA are portrayed as unambiguous antagonists who attack and kill the Na’vi to plunder their resources. Since the RDA are the aggressors in both stories, the Avatar franchise’s first two installments have similar plots. Director James Cameron told French outlet 20Minutes that Avatar 3 would feature a new, more negative side of the Na’vi, so it stands to reason that the sequel will portray them as the aggressors in the next battle with the RDA. Since the humans wrought so much death and destruction in Pandora, this would be a justified change in pace.
Although Avatar 3’s villainous Na’vi story risks ruining the franchise’s antic-colonial message, it does mean that the sequel wouldn’t have to rely on a trite trope found in its earlier outings. In the original Avatar, the priceless Unobtanium is the most important resource that the RDA hopes to extract from Pandora. In Avatar: The Way of Water, Tulkun’s Amrita takes the place of this metal. However, in both cases, the resource that the RDA robs is little more than a perfunctory plot device. They don’t really impact the story of the movies beyond giving the villains something tangible to steal.
Especially since Cameron said that this sequel would expose their dark side, Avatar 3’s Na’vi could upset this formula by simply attacking the RDA. This would come as a surprise to both the viewers and the human characters alike and could prove an effective way of complicating the franchise’s straightforward story. Even though the human invaders are clearly in the wrong, an unanticipated attack on their operations could paint the Na’vi as more cunning and ruthless than they previously seemed. Thus, Avatar 3 could surprise audiences who expect the sequel to repeat the same story as its franchise predecessors.
While Avatar 3’s plot will center on Jake Sully and company, the sequel’s new fire Na’vi can force the franchise to interrogate some tricky questions. The question of whether the Na’vi are justified in preemptively attacking the RDA because they have invaded their planet, even if they haven’t specifically attacked their clan, could be addressed in this sequel’s story. The Na’vi fire clans should be more aggressive than their predecessors, just like the Metkayina were more mellow as a water clan than the original movie’s air clans. Their element makes the fire clan’s combative attitude even more justified.
The fact that Avatar 3’s Na’vi will show a new side of the natives doesn’t mean that the sequel’s non-human characters need to be villains. Instead, Avatar 3’s story could prove that the fire clans attacked the RDA without provocation because they had been worn down by years of battling colonial oppression. Avatar 3’s Eywa story proves that the RDA is an existential threat to the Na’vi, meaning the fire clan would be justified in attacking them by surprise. However, only time will tell whether the series will use this particular potential Avatar 3 storyline.
